The present invention relates to articulated transmission joints including rollers, of the type comprising a male element which has a hub from which extend arms or trunnions on each of which is rotatably and slidably mounted a roller, and a female element which defines runways respectively receiving the rollers, each arm of the male element being provided with a clearance-taking up device which biases the corresponding roller outwardly. Articulated joints of the tripod type are an example of these joints employed in particular in automobile vehicles.
It is known that in order to obtain a satisfactory operation of tripod joints, a slight clearance, of for example 0.02 to 0.15 mm, must be provided between the diameter of the runways and the spherical diameter of the rollers so as to avoid any contact between the roller and the runway which is not subjected to the transverse force of the effective torque. Now, this clearance may result in an undesirable tapping when suddenly reversing the torque to be transmitted through the joint. In order to overcome this drawback, various clearance-taking up devices have been proposed. In particular, French patent application N.degree. 79 04113 teaches the use of a spring which biases each roller outwardly, which constitutes a solution which is applicable even when the rollers are journalled on needles and are in one piece.
However, although the overall size of the spring is very small, the arrangement of this patent application reduces the thickness of the hub of the tripod element in the region of the spring by an amount which is sufficient to substantially decrease the strength of the joint when it is necessary to adopt a clearance-taking up device on an existing joint for a new application.